1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a virtual customer sales and service center, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for connecting any customer to any sales and service resource through any access method at any time from any customer location.
2. Description of Related Art
In the United States, telecommunications is an industry that is undergoing convergence. There is a good deal of discussion about the consolidation of computing and telecommunications into one overarching entity. There is also lot of talk about one wire to the home and one even larger wire or cable to the business.
The trend toward universal data access has brought the focus of two technologies to the solution of a single problem, i.e., integrating telephones and computers to provide access and control of the data residing on both platforms. Computer telephone integration (CTI) is a technology platform that merges voice and data services at the functional level to add tangible benefits to business applications. CTI technology combines voice and data to form a foundation to support business applications, seamlessly combining functions from both the telephony world and the computing world.
Over the years, telecommunications and data technologies have grown more alike. The independent features offered by telephones and computers become even more powerful, useful, and convenient when combined into voice processing applications running on computers. In today's business environment, the telephone is often the primary means of communication in many different situations: placing catalog orders, checking airline schedules, querying prices, reviewing account balances, and recording and retrieving messages. Usually, each telephone call involves a service representative talking to a caller, asking questions, entering responses into a computer, and reading information to the caller from a terminal screen.
When organizations automate this process by linking their computer and telephone systems, they can lower costs, provide better customer service, increase the number of services available, and extend hours of operation. Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) lets customers, for example, use their touch-tone phone to check their bank balance 24 hours a day rather than walk to a cash machine or wait on hold for a customer service representative. And the marriage of phone and computer systems can identify incoming calls, route them to the appropriate person, and deliver the caller's file on a computer screen to the person answering the call--before the call is answered. Accordingly, the road to greater profit runs through a call center for high quality, low-cost customer acquisition and retention.
Today's computer-telephone integration offerings enhance a range of emerging technologies, such as:
Interactive voice response: the ability to input and retrieve information from a computer database via a touch-tone phone; PA1 Fax publishing: the ability to request that fax information be automatically forwarded to the caller via touch-tone phone; PA1 Two-way message notification: the ability to link voice mail and electronic mail (E-mail) systems so that users can collect all messages--voice and data--via a single source
CTI provides many benefit to consumers. For example, CTI allows consumers to spend less time on hold, improves response time for callers once they get through to the company, allows instant access to database information, often on a 24-hour basis; provides callback options for callers who don't want to stay on hold, provides access to service reps who, when freed from routine functions, have more time to research and answer complicated questions, and eliminates the need to repeat identification information and reason for calling when transferred to another employee or department.
Businesses also benefit from the use of CTI. For example, the benefits of CTI to business includes prompter and more accurate response to inquiries, orders, and service requests, personalized attention and efficient problem resolution, improved customer and prospects access to information about new products and services, increased number of services available and extended hours of operation.
Increased telesales revenue, higher levels of referral and repeat business, fewer data entry keystroke errors, shorter transaction time, increased employee productivity, improved employee morale, and cost savings from operational efficiency.
Today, the majority of CTI applications are being built for call centers. A call center is a customer business center where initial access is by telephone. Employees working in call centers provide services over the telephone. Their tasks can include placing outgoing calls, answering incoming calls, asking callers for information, or providing services. While handling calls, employees often use desktop computers to enter or retrieve information.
Current call center routing techniques can be difficult to manage and do not simplify the interaction for customers. Routing services within a call center have traditionally been provided through caller initiated functions such as selecting one of several 800 numbers or making a particular selection in the VRU. The routing services do not provide for an effective match of skilled employees with customer value and need. Multi-site call center routing is typically a simple percentage allocation of calls to various sites achieved through the network carrier. Overflow services are managed through the re-assignment of employees to queues. The goal in all these methods is to provide some level of improved service to the customer through a better match of calls to skilled employees and a better use of available Customer Service Representatives (CSRs). These approaches accomplish the routing goals to some degree; however, they require many different mechanisms making it difficult to manage. These mechanisms include: various 800 numbers, network carrier load balancing, VRU routing to queues and static realignment of employees to queues.
The typical CTI call center makes use of products and services from several different sources: public and private networks; voice switches, automatic call distributors, hardware and software from computer vendors, specialized business applications from software suppliers, and components such as voice response units, voice mail systems, call sequencers, predictive dialers, and fax machines.
However, prior CTI call centers have not had the ability to connect any customer to all sales and service resources through any access method at any time from any customer location.
In regard to access method, many companies are dealing with the utilization of new access method types for remote customer interaction including, but not limited to, e-mail, Internet/Web, fax, and kiosks. These are most often dealt with separately from call centers.
Further, prior CTI call centers have not maximized the efficiency and productivity of employees with the call centers and have not even attempted to deal with resources outside the traditional call center domain of VRUs and employees. Whether large or small, call centers are still departments within a larger enterprise. Often, other departments have customer sales and service resources. Other departments may include office, branches, third party locations, etc. Call center technology improvements are typically not shared with these departments and the resources within. As a result, the customer cannot contact those resources as easily as they can those in a call center. Nor can call centers and other departments be effectively coordinated to improve sales and service quality while reducing costs.
It can be seen that there is a need for a virtual customer sales and service center which connects any customer to any resource through any access method at any time from any customer location.
It can also be seen that there is a need for a common technology platform which support all forms of customer interaction including customer self sales and service as well as employee assisted sales and service.
It can also be seen that there is a need for a virtual customer sales and service center which maximizes the efficiency and productivity of the entire enterprise's sales and service resources.